When Did Comic Strips Start?

A comic strip is a drawing or a collection of multiple drawings that tells a story. Written and drawn by a cartoonist, these comic strips are published on a recurring basis in local newspapers. As the name shows, a comic strip can be humorous.

Comics became widespread when newspapers began printing them in the late 1890s. The first comic strip that was widely known was “Hogan’s Alley,” by Richard F Outcault.

It appeared in the 1890s, and its main character was “the Yellow Kid”-a bald, grinning fellow dressed in a yellow nightshirt. Outcault used the yellow shirt as a space to print messages.

Instantly popular, these Yellow Kid strips established comics as a regular newspaper feature. Today, more than 100 million Americans read comic strips in some 1,700 newspapers. There are also more than 200 million readers abroad in 42 languages and 102 countries.

Content for this question contributed by Caryn Amodeo, resident of Albany, New York, USA